Microsoft is slowly rolling out a new set of icon designs for all its in-box apps on Windows 10, starting with the Mail, Calendar, and a number of other Windows accessory apps. These icons were first introduced on Windows 10X, but Microsoft plans to roll out these icons to all editions of Windows 10 in the coming months.
The new icons are quite the departure from the old flat icon style first introduced with Windows 8, being much more colorful with depth and shadows. I personally really like the new icons, as they give a breath of fresh air to the Windows design language, especially with Fluent Design evolving to include rounded elements.
Microsoft's old style of icon design was very sharp and robotic, which made sense when the "Modern Design Language" (MDL) was front and center, but MDL is long gone and Fluent Design is now the language Microsoft follows when building products. So it's about time that Microsoft updated Windows' icon aesthetic with something that goes along with the depth and charisma that Fluent Design brings with it.
I do agree, however, that the new icon design doesn't go well with the live tile interface present on Windows 10. I would hope that Microsoft is planning to replace the Windows 10 Start menu with the new one on Windows 10X at some point, as this would alleviate the odd clash of design languages which see's the new icons sitting on top of live tiles. They just don't go well together.
Microsoft's live tile game is long over. The feature itself hasn't been updated or improved in some time, and developers rarely, if ever, take full advantage of what live tiles have to offer. Not even Microsoft's own "Teams" app supports live tiles, which is frankly unacceptable. So I'd like to see the Windows 10X Start menu on Windows 10 at some point, as that follows Microsoft's new design language.
What are your thoughts on the new icons coming to Windows 10? Let us know in the comment and answer our poll!
